1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to circuit design emulation systems and, more specifically, to a method and apparatus for controlling power in an emulation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The usefulness of software driven emulators has increased enormously with growth in the complexity of integrated circuits. Basically, an emulation engine operates to mimic a logical design of a set of one or more integrated circuit chips. Emulation engines typically contain an interconnected array of emulation processors. Each emulation processor can be programmed to evaluate logic functions. The program-driven processors operate together as an interconnected unit, emulating an entire desired logic design. As integrated circuit designs grow in size, more emulation processors are required to accomplish the emulation task.
Due to the increasing number of emulation processors, the power and cooling requirements of processor-based emulation systems are relatively high. Historically, this has meant that users of such systems must provide specialized current supply and cooling equipment. This creates a barrier for some users, where the requirements of such specialized equipment are onerous. As such, there is a need in the art to control power and temperature in an emulation system.